Trading Company was opened by Vern Knox on Labor Day weekend of 1995.

Within the year (by April 1996), Trading Company had three floors of bar space. It had combined with the Stage Door Cafe next door, running 12 hours a day on weekends between the two, using the Cafe as an after-bar space. (See article in Quest magazine volume 3-05, page 9, below.)

Vern left in July 1996 and the bar was taken over by new owner Wayne Marek. Then in January 1997, Wayne opened another bar, Scooters, one block away. For a time the two bars advertised together, in at least one case calling the other a "sister bar".

Starting in December 1997 ads for 'Scooters' no longer mentioned The Trading Company, and although Trading Company continued to be listed in In Step magazine's bar guide until that periodical ceased in November 2003, we believe Trading Company had in fact closed in 1997. The location was listed as being used by subsequent bar "CJ's Great Escape" from Sept. 2001 to January 2002 (Quest 8-12 to 8-17), and then "The Stone's Throw" from June to November 2005. We have not yet located information about either of those bars.

More information about this business is welcome from anyone who can contribute same.